


Night Time Vists

by The_Ace_Anon



Series: self-indulgent ahit/apop au [2]
Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Hurt No Comfort, Implied Physical Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27630458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Ace_Anon/pseuds/The_Ace_Anon
Summary: He doesn't miss her, but he does. He doesn't want to see her, but he does. She smiles sweetly as she calls him her prince, and he remembers that same smile as she sent ice crashing through his chest. Poisoned words drip from her mouth, and he drinks them all up.(More of the comfort character and ocs crossover. Derek and Logan belong to @darkwarfy on tumblr)
Relationships: The Florist & The Prince (A Hat in Time), The Prince (A Hat in Time) & Original Character(s), The Prince/Queen Vanessa (A Hat in Time)
Series: self-indulgent ahit/apop au [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019415
Kudos: 7





	Night Time Vists

The first time he visits her is a few days after he’s allowed out of the medical wing. Nightmares are common, but now his brain simply refuses to let him fall asleep in the first place. Normally books would be his escape, but his tired eyes refuse to read the words, and without a distraction he’s far too aware of how empty the bed feels. After an hour of blankly staring at the wall, he gives up. He gets up, wraps a blanket around himself, and leaves his room. He could talk to Cam, or Logan, but both of them are probably asleep and he doesn’t want to bother them. He’s kept them up enough nights as it is, he doesn’t want to add to the count. So, Thea heads down to the dungeon.

He doesn’t know why he’s doing this, with every step the thought of going back to his room and staring at the wall seems more appealing, but his body keeps moving forward, towards the last person he wants to see….and the person he wants to see the most. It’s not hard to find Vanessa’s cell, considering it’s the only one with someone in it. She’s staring at the wall, but turns at the sound of his footsteps. He doesn’t know what it says about them that she doesn’t seem surprised to see him.

“Hello, my prince.” She says and- god just the sound of that pet name makes him want to run. He feels like he’s going to be sick, part of his mind is screaming at him to leave before she hurts him again. 

He sits down in front of the cell. “Vanessa.” She looks back at the wall. He can see the magic restraining cuffs around her wrists, and for a moment he can almost feel his own cuffs, chaining him to her. 

“Why are you here, my prince?”

“.....Why did you lock me in the cellar?” He asks instead, hoping if he ignores her question it’ll go away. He doesn’t know the answer to it, he doesn’t think he wants to know the answer.

“You already know why. I wanted to keep you safe from those who would steal you from me, wanted it to be just us and no one else. You’re my prince, and I wanted to make sure you’d always be mine. But it seems that despite my efforts, you’ve still been taken from me.”

“......I wasn’t taken from you, no one pulled me away from you,  _ you _ pushed me away. You destroyed our relationship when you decided that leaving me in chains was a better solution than just talking to me.”

“Are you sure about that? What lies have they fed you about me? Perhaps that I never truly loved you? That the way I treated you was wrong? I love you, my prince, anything I did, I did so we could be happy.”

“You tried to kill me.” Thea croaked, tears starting to slip out of his eyes. “You sent ice through my chest, you almost killed me. How is that love?”

“Isn’t it love to want to be with someone forever? Isn’t it love to not want to watch someone be twisted into something they’re not? I would’ve gladly speared both of us on the same spike of ice, if it met we would forever be each other’s.” She reached out through the bars, gently cupping his check, and smiled at him. Thea flinched, expecting the burn of freezing cold ice from her touch, expecting the familiar feeling of frost growing over his skin. “Even in death, you will always be my prince.”

The stared at her for a moment, before the tears began to overwhelm him. He curled in on himself, sobbing into his hands. He hated it, hated that he was crying, that he was crying in front of  _ her _ , that he was even here in the first place. He wanted to leave, he wanted her to stop touching him, he wanted  _ her _ to leave. But he stayed, and she stayed too. She hugged him through the bars, cooing at him. She held him and promised she would always love him, that no matter what they twisted him into, no matter what they told him, she would still love her prince.

He stayed the rest of the night.

\------

Thea trailed behind Cam in the castle gardens, listening to her ramble about the plants. According to the doctors, it was good for him to get outside every now and then, so everyday Cam would drag him away from his work and into the gardens. Today, she was talking about orchids and how to care for them and how most of them were jerks. He smiled as he listened to her, it was always fun listening to Cam talk about flowers. He glanced over at a nearby bush of flowers and- they were roses, black ones. Vanessa loved roses, he remembered listening to her talk about them as she held the ones he’d given her, cutting off their thorns. She talked about how most saw them as a symbol of love, but really they had many different meanings. He remembered smiling and asking if she knew what the ones he’d given her met, and she’d smiled at him and- and- and-

_ And his sobs echoed through the dungeon _

“Thea?”

_ And there was a cold hand on his cheek _

“Thea??”

_ “ _ **_Even in death, you will always be my prince_ ** _.” _

“ _ Thea _ !” 

The prince snapped back to reality and looked down at his friend, smiling at her. “Yes?”

Cam eyed him worriedly. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, sorry I just zoned out a little bit. What were you saying?”

She didn’t look completely convinced that he was fine, but she still went back to walking, continuing the conversation. He gave one last look towards the black roses, before following after her.

\-------

It took another week for him to go back. He wasn’t even fully aware of what he was doing, his body going down the steps on auto-pilot, his brain too tired to take back control. She smiled when she saw him.

“My prince, you’ve come back. Though I can’t imagine it’s to rescue me.” He didn’t respond, just sat down in front of the bars. He held his hand out in front of him, running a finger along the bandages wrapped around his wrist.

“......they keep telling me that you hurt me, that you shouldn’t have….”  _ shouldn’t have freezed me, shouldn’t have screamed at me, shouldn’t have left me wrapped in chains in the cold and the dark. _

She took his hand and gently pulled it into her cell, running her fingers over his palm. It took all he had not to snatch it back. “Didn’t I tell you they’d lie about me? Can you really hurt someone, if you do it out of love? I froze you because I was scared you’d leave me. I raised my voice because I was scared you didn’t love me. I chained you because loving you hurt too much for you to love others. And if me chaining you was so bad, well…..I suppose we’re both in the wrong now aren’t we?” She said, gesturing at her own chains.

Thea felt sick. “That’s…...that’s different, you chained me up because I talked to my friend. We chained you up because you were hurting people. You….”

“ _You_ _deserve this_? Is that what you were about to say my prince? They really have twisted you, haven’t they? We both have our chains, my prince. I’m just curious, if I deserve mine, did you really deserve to break free of yours?”

“I-I didn’t deserve to be locked up. I didn’t deserve the chains you gave me.” He said, the words feeling empty even on his own tongue.

Vanessa just smiled at him. “It’s not good for you to lie to yourself my prince.” He didn’t reply, just watched her caress his palm and fit her own hand into his. A perfect match.

\--------

Thea took a sip of the hot chocolate in his hand and watched the steam rise to the ceiling. Logan sat next to him, nursing his own hot chocolate. The two of them were sitting at Thea’s dining table, two insomniacs sharing a drink. Thea had woken up from a nightmare, the feeling of ice still on his skin, the icy cold air still in his lungs, and he wandered down into the kitchen for something warm to chase away the chill, and found Logan. He wasn’t sure why the Helsoner prince had been down here, but he didn’t refuse Thea’s offer of a hot chocolate and now here they were. He took another sip, Vanessa’s words still rattling around in his mind.

“ ** _We both have our chains._** **_If I deserve mine, did you really deserve to break free of yours_**?”

“....Logan?”

“Yeah?”

“Do…..do you think Vanessa deserved to go to jail?”

“Wha- yeah?? She tried to kill you! I think that’s a pretty good reason to be locked up…….Why?”

“I…..I just….” He sighed. “I don’t know.”

Logan stared at him for a moment, before awkwardly reaching out and patting him on the back. “Listen, I get that you miss her. But she really hurt you, she treated you like some…..thing that she owned, and she almost killed you when you protested. I know it’s hard to understand that what she did hurt you, but she did, and letting her free and back into your life won’t change that. Ok?”

“ **_What lies have they fed you about me?_ ** ”

“........ok.”

\------

He’s so tired, even the walk down to the dungeon feels taxing. His body wobbles with each step, unsteady and unsure. He wonders if he’s sick, that could explain why he’s doing this. The visits to Vanessa don’t make him feel better, they just drain him. He hates visiting her, hates listening to her words drip from her mouth like poisoned honey, hates the title she gives him, hates even seeing her. Yet he’s still going back, despite how unsteady and foggy his mind feels he’s still going back. He takes another step forward and-

“Thea?” And he freezes. He whips around to see Derek standing in the hallway, staring at him with visible concern in his eyes. “What are you doing up?”

“Just….just going on a walk.” He says, the lie feeling heavy on his tongue. “I was having a bit of trouble falling asleep, so I thought moving around a little would help.”

Derek still looks suspicious. “Alright….are you ok?”

Thea smiles at him, hoping it doesn’t look as fake as it feels. “I’m fine, go back to what you were doing. I’ll probably go back to bed soon.” He walks away before Derek can respond, forcing himself to wander through the halls instead of heading straight towards the cells like he normally would. Once he’s fairly certain Derek isn’t following him, he goes back to Vanessa.

“You’re late my prince.” Is her greeting. He doesn’t say anything, just sits in front of her cell. He stares at her with tired eyes through the bars.

“.....Do you regret it?” He asks, leaning his head against the cold, metal bars. She doesn’t ask what he’s talking about, she doesn’t need to.

“No. I admit, I miss not being behind bars, I miss being able to use my ice, I miss holding you without metal in my way. But I don’t regret claiming you as mine, and this isn’t too bad. I still get to see you.” He doesn’t respond, just pulls the blanket wrapped around him tighter. “You look tired my prince.”

“.....I am tired. Tired of this, tired of these meetings.”

“If you’re so tired, then why do you keep coming back?”

“.......I don’t know.”

Vanessa smiles. “Whether you like it or not, we were made for each other. You, my prince, and I, your princess. We deserve each other.” ….Maybe she’s right, they do deserve each other. Deserve to tear each other apart, deserve to smile while the other screams, hand in unlovable hand. 

“.....If you had the chance to make everything normal again, to undo all of this, would you take it?”

  
  


“Would you?” He doesn’t respond, he doesn’t know what his answer would be.

\------

He finds Derek there when he comes out of the jail, waiting for him. He’s too tired to be surprised.

“How much did you hear?”

“....All of it.” The Borna prince looks even more concerned now then he did last night. “Why...do you go down there?”

“I don’t know.”

“....how long has this been going on?”

“Since I got out of the medical wing.”

“Does it….make you feel better? Seeing her down there?”

“No, no it doesn’t. I hate it, I hate seeing her, I just…..I miss her.” His voice cracks, tears forming in his eyes as his tired brain finally finds a reason. “I shouldn’t, I know you guys keep telling me that she hurt me and that what we had wasn’t good, but I miss it. I….I miss those mornings where I’d wake up in bed and she’d be there, I miss having a hand to hold at night, I miss cooking with her, I miss talking to her, I just….miss her. I just want her back.” 

Derek pulls him into a hug, holding him gently but firmly, letting him cry it all out onto his shoulder. “I know….it’s ok…...just let it all out.” Thea’s body racked with sobs, shaking and screaming and shivering. Shadows form up from under him, wrapping around his legs in an attempt to show comfort. He’s so  _ tired _ , he’s tired of the nightmares and the ice, tired of the constant concern, tired of talking to her. He just wants to sleep peacefully for once, but he doesn’t think he can anymore.

“Here, come on. Let’s get you back to bed, you look exhausted.” Derek says, gently picking him up and carrying him away. Thea doesn’t have the energy to protest.

\-------

When he goes back to the staircase leading down to Vanessa, Cam’s there waiting for him. He plops down at the top of the stairs, and Cam sits down next to him. Neither of them talk for a moment.

“...Were you planning on going back down?”

“....Yeah.”

“You know you don’t have to talk to her right?”

“....I feel like I have to.”

“Do you want to?”

“No.”

“Then you don’t have to.” She stood up, smiled at him, and held out her hand. “Come on, let’s go back to your room. I’m sure you have a book or two we can read.”

Thea stared at her hand for a moment, then glanced back down the staircase. He could ignore Cam, he could go down the staircase anyway, go back to her and her poisoned words, drink it all down and kill a bit more of himself. He took her hand, let her lead him away from the stairs, and didn't look back.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
